Chair Yoga for Balance | Osteoporosis Friendly

In this chair yoga practice, we’ll focus on building balance, stability, and strength with gentle, osteoporosis-friendly movements.
Using a chair for stability, you’ll engage in mindful movements that enhance coordination, strengthen the lower body, and improve posture, all important for maintaining bone health. We’ll move through stretches and gentle exercises that reduce the risk of falls and help you feel more confident in your daily movements.

Transcript

Hi everyone, Thanks for joining today. Today's chair yoga class is designed to be osteoporosis and arthritis friendly, Meaning that we won't do any twisting in this class or any flexion of the spine. So there will be no rounding and the focus will be on lengthening and extending the spine. We'll also focus on stability and balance, Which is great for anyone. So if you're coming out of a recent surgery and you're approved to start doing some yoga, This might be a good introductory back into your classes. This will be a short class and you don't need any props, Just a chair without wheels. If you want a cushion under your seat, You could add a little bit of a blanket or cushion to help support you. If you have blocks or books, You might have one or two blocks handy. The feet may go on top of the blocks later for a butterfly pose. Aside from that, All you need is a chair and this can be done anywhere, Anytime. So let's begin with a mindful moment, Connecting our breath to our body and our mind. Maybe letting the hands stay on top of the legs, Softening the gaze down if that feels good, Or even closing the eyes. You may even take one hand to the heart, One hand to the abdomen to really feel the breath here. Maybe breathing in and out through the nose, Starting to let the exhales become just a bit longer than the inhale, Feeling a sense of wholeness, This feeling of self-acceptance and self-love. And as we do this, As we feel the breath move through the body, You may take this time to set an intention or sankalpa or affirmation. Maybe it's an affirmation of self-love. Whatever your intention or affirmation is, You might repeat it to yourself two or three times here now, Continuing to find longer breaths. With the next breath, We'll start to flutter the eyes open if they're closed. Take the hands down by your sides and begin to roll the shoulders back down and away. Nice and gentle as you feel the spine lengthen, Feeling the sitting bones ground down to the chair, The soles of the feet ground down to the earth. Feel the top of the head reach up high towards the sky as the spine lengthens. Maybe change the direction of the shoulder rolls, Circling the shoulders the other way. And then we'll take our time to bring the hands to the heart center. Lower the chin towards the chest, Getting a nice stretch in the back of the neck. Start to lower the chin down, But make sure that the spine is staying nice and long. So being mindful that we're not hinging or leaning forward, Just the chin is lowering. As we stay here, We'll start to roll the right ear over towards the right shoulder. Lower the right shoulder down. Lower the left shoulder down a little bit lower. Feel this slight opening in the left side of the neck. And then maybe start to take the right hand to the top of the head, Just as a guide and support not to lower or force the head down too low. Starting to extend the left arm long, Feeling this length all the way from the head down the neck to the off the fingertips, As though any tension is dissolving off the neck and recycling back into the earth. You might take a couple of small circles of the fingers, Circling the arm and the shoulder, And then switching direction to go the other way with your circles. Noticing how this feels in your neck, Maybe taking any slight movements of the chin or the nose, And then gently releasing the hand from the top of your head, Rolling both shoulders back down in a way. Noticing and feeling any differences between one side or the other, And then bringing the hands back to heart center. We'll take the right ear down, Left ear down towards your left shoulder. Lower the left shoulder down. Lower the right shoulder down. Pause here. Feel the sensation. And then take the left hand maybe on top of your head as a guide, If that feels okay, Extending the right arm long, Feeling that long length from the top of the head down to the fingertips. Maybe start to circle the fingers here one way, And then make circles with the arm and the fingers the opposite way, Adjusting the nose or chin on this side to a level that feels good for you. And then with a deep breath, Gently release the hands, Release the head back to neutral. And we'll bring the hands together again, Palms together, This time interlacing the fingers, Taking a couple circles of the wrist here. Circle the wrist without moving the body or the arms, Just letting the wrist rotate in circles. Change direction, Start to take the circles the other way. Adding on to this, We'll lift one forearm up, Bring the other forearm down. So they're parallel here, Getting a stretch through the fingers, Wrist, Maybe forearms. Switch to go the other way. And maybe one more at each direction, Feeling exactly where this needs to be without moving the torso. Perfect. Then interlacing the hands, Start to press the heels of the hands away from the body. Be mindful of the shoulders. If there's any sensation there, Maybe give a little bit of a bend to the elbows. Maybe press the heels of the hands a little further away. And then find that spot that feels just right. Maybe lower down towards your legs or higher up towards the ceiling. Find and notice where this feels good in the body. And then once you find a spot, You might linger there for a couple breaths. Or just slowly make your way from the sky down to your lap with the arms. Good. As the hands meet back to the chair, We'll release the fingers, Take a little shake of the hands and fingers. And we'll move our way down to the lower body, Starting to warm up the heels, The feet, The lower body before we do the balancing. We'll take heel lifts. So coming up with the heels, Just lifting and lowering the heels. We'll do this several times. Find a pace that feels good for you. Again, Noticing where the rest of the body is, Keeping the rest of your torso, Body nice and aligned, Spine is straight, Just the heels are lifting and lowering. We'll do this a few more times, Starting to take a few deep breaths. Notice if you stopped the intentional breathing or if you're tensing or holding in any area of the body. Start to lower the heels, Now lift the toes. If it's not comfortable to do both at the same time, Maybe start with one foot and then the other. Rotating one foot and the other. And then maybe both come together. You might need to walk your feet a little bit further in front. And this might be a time that you'd put blocks or books underneath if your feet aren't fully touching the ground. All depends on the height of the chair that you're in. Starting to lift the toes more. You might start to feel this around the shins, The ankles, Maybe even all the way up towards the knees and the quads. It's all very connected. So whatever you're feeling is perfect, Just as it is. We'll take a couple more of the toe lifts, Whether you're alternating or lifting both feet at the same time. Start to lower and complete the heels here, Letting the feet feel grounded, The shoulders roll back and away, Feeling the shoulders, The neck, The ankles all warmed up, As well as the wrist. We'll take a breath here. And then we're going to come up to standing for tree pose. If you prefer to stay seated, You can also take tree pose seated. So you might cross one foot over to a block, Or you might even cross one foot on top of the knee. We'll get to a figure four after. So if you're taking a seated tree, Find a place that feels good on the hips and the stability to bring one foot in. If you're comfortable standing up to the chair, You might stand either behind your chair or next to the chair. Bringing one foot up, This is another time you might use the book or block. If you want to rest the foot or the toes on top of a book or block, You might take that option. Feel that same Tadasana-like feeling. Let the shoulders roll back and the spine lift up tall here. As you do this, The toes might stay down on the mat, And you might start to let go of the chair. Maybe the hands come to heart center. Maybe you start to lift the foot up a little bit higher up the leg. The chair is there to support you, So you can reach for the chair at any point, Either next to the chair or behind the chair, With one hand or both. Find a gazing point that's straight ahead to help you keep your balance, And feel all the muscles of that grounded leg working really hard to keep the body upright. Finding another two breaths here, Maybe playing around with the arms in different places, And then begin to lower the foot down. Maybe circle out the ankle or the hip a little bit, Making our way to the other side. You might go to the other side of the chair, Or you might be standing behind the chair and have the ability to hold on to the back of the chair. We'll take the same thing, Knowing that each side might feel very different in your body. You might have one side that's a lot more dominant, Bringing the foot to touch down to a block, Or bring the foot to the leg. Let the hands rest at heart center, Or maybe lift one hand or both hands. Be okay with swaying in and out, Letting the foot drop down and come back up to the leg. It's all part of the practice. It's all part of the process. You're getting stronger each part of the way. The balance is lasting longer each time. The trees sway naturally, And so do we. So have that self-acceptance of where you are today. Find that elongated spine and stability, And then come back to your breath. Good. Start to lower the foot back down. Maybe circle out the ankle or circle out the hip, And then we'll come back down to the chair, Finding our way back down to the seat. We'll find a figure four now. So taking the right foot to cross over the top of the left knee. You might hold right on top of the legs here and rest here. Again, Think of the spine as lifting up tall, The same way we've been through the entire class. Lengthening through the spine, Opening up here through the hip. If there's some sensitivity in the knee, It might help to flex the toes back on this foot. So as you flex the toes, You might feel a bit of relief near the knee. Pause here. Maybe it feels better to hold the sides of the chair, If that's accessible on your chair. And if you want to go deeper into this, You could take the same thing standing up next to your chair, Practicing the balance with the same motion standing. I'll demonstrate that. If that feels like something you want to attempt or work with, You might start to sink the hips down. Again, Keeping the spine lifted or stay lifted here. Very similar to where we were with Tree, Except we're getting deeper down into the glutes, Deeper into a squat-like position. Be mindful of the tailbone lowering and the spine lengthening, Not rounding through the spine. Either option, We're going to pause here. If you want to go a little bit deeper in the seated version, You might extend forward. Again, Keeping the back straight. We're not rounding forward, But extending. So if you'd like a deeper sensation, We don't need a lot of a stretch here. You might start to extend the heart forward towards your legs. Breathing here. And then take your time to lift back up. Lower the foot down. Maybe hug that knee in a little bit and circle the leg. And then switch to the other side, Crossing the left foot over the top of the right knee or the opposite of whatever you did that time. Again, If the knee feels any sensitivity, Maybe flex the toes back. If you want to take this same thing standing, Take the same thing standing, But allow the spine to stay lifted. The heart's extending forward. Maybe the hands rest on top of the legs. Or you might extend forward, Flat back, Hinging from the hips. Maybe holding on to the chair. Breathing here. A couple more breaths. On the next breath, Start to lift the heart. Hug the knee in. Take a couple circles of the knee on this side. Lowering the foot back down. Coming back up to a seat, We'll take two more movements, Letting the hands come out. This will work the shoulders, Wrists, And hands a little bit more. We're going to let the fingers be wide, Palms facing in. Back is straight. Shoulder blades are rolled back down and away. We're going to open the fingers wide and then clench the hands in. Open wide and clench in. If you want to take this on one hand and then the other, You can alternate sides. If there's any sensitivity in the shoulders with this, If you're starting to feel too much up the shoulder and neck, Just keep the elbows in closer to the body. That will keep it more in the wrist and the hands and less into the neck and shoulders, If that's something that feels a little worked today. Taking your time to open the fingers real wide and then clench them. Start to match your breath to the movement. We'll take five more. Good. After this next one, Release the clenching. Maybe circle out the fingers and hands. Lower the hands down. Taking a breath here. We'll start to come to a butterfly position. So you could do this without the blocks or book or if you have them accessible, Using either one or two, Depending on how high you want the feet to be lifted. I'm going to bring the soles of the feet together. Let the knees open here. Maybe the hands just rest on the legs or near the knees. You might close your eyes or soften the gaze. Come back to the breath here for about ten breaths. Keeping the spine nice and tall. Feeling the feet connected here. Feeling the soft opening and release as we connect the mind, The body, The breath. Be able to move through our practice and move through our life. Hopefully a little bit easier. Taking maybe two or three more breaths here. Take our time to take the hands outside the knees. Guide the knees in together. Start to sweep the hips to one side and then the other. You can let the gaze go to the other side, Just the knees. Sway one way and the other as fast or as slow as you'd like to take this movement. Moving the block aside or keeping the block there, You can start to rest the back, Rest the posture, Rest the hands. Find a position that feels comfortable for you. Relaxing the body from doing and allow the breath, The body to just be here and now, Present and aware. Notice any thoughts, Sensations, Or feelings that are present. Taking a couple more mindful breaths, You can stay here in this final resting pose, Feeling the practice for as long as it feels good for you, As long as you can. Maybe coming down to lie on the mat or a comfortable spot on the floor and letting this be a 20-minute relaxation pose for you. If you feel ready to reawaken now as we close out the video, You might bring the hands to the lap or the heart center, Maybe even the space between your eyebrows. And together we all close out this practice with so much love and gratitude. Thank you.